Network devices are designed to interoperate with each other in networks to carry services. To avoid disruption by unauthorized devices, various authentication protocols have been implemented. These protocols are often tightly tied to centralized authentication servers. The centralized authentication servers receive authentication data from network devices, perform validation and authorization, and then return a set of authorization steps to be taken. The authentication servers maintain a static or manually created list of devices or passwords for validation. However, maintenance of the list may be burdensome and/or not performed well, leading to difficulties in network operation or lack of timeliness.
Some protocols implemented locally include validation at the local level. For example, an application for creating a virtual private network may include validation functions. Where a device operates a plurality of protocols, the local validation operations for each may waste network resources.